The Thorns of Love

part 1

Title: "The Thorns of Love"
She stood at the edge of the cemetery, the wind tugging at her dark coat, her fingers trembling as they clutched the crumpled letter in her hand. The sun had long set, leaving the world bathed in the pale, sickly glow of moonlight.
“Do you still love me?” The question echoed in her mind like a twisted prayer, but the voice she once heard answering her was silent now.
Lucian had been gone for three months. But to Evangeline, it felt like a lifetime. His death hadn’t been an accident. It hadn’t even been a tragedy. It had been a choice—his choice.
He had given her everything. His body. His heart. His soul. But she had been too afraid. Too unwilling to surrender to him fully. He had warned her, just before the end, that love wasn’t something you could walk away from without consequence.
“You’re mine,” he had whispered in her ear, as she stood over him, blood staining her hands. “Always.”
Now, with his grave before her, Evangeline could feel the weight of his words. She’d tried to move on. Tried to bury the feelings of longing and guilt deep within herself. But in the hollow of every passing day, she had been haunted by his absence—and by a truth she could not deny.
The letter rustled in her hand, the ink still smudged in places, as though it had been written in haste.
I’ve never left you, Evangeline. I am the shadow you can’t escape. The voice you hear in the quiet moments. The darkness that curls around your heart. Return to me, and you’ll find what we’ve both been waiting for.
Her breath caught in her throat as she turned to the grave beside her. Beneath the soil, Lucian lay, his once-lustrous black hair tangled, his handsome face now a pale memory of life.
But what if... what if he wasn’t gone at all? What if his words were more than a delusion?
The ground felt cold beneath her feet, and as she sank to her knees, the earth began to shift—slowly, unnaturally—as though something beneath the surface was stirring. The letter slipped from her fingers, drifting away like a fragile leaf in the wind.
A shadow rose from the earth. It took shape, solidifying into the form of a man. His eyes were the same as she remembered—dark, fathomless, like the deepest abyss. And his smile, twisted and knowing, sent a chill through her bones.
“Did you miss me, Evangeline?” Lucian’s voice was both familiar and foreign, the edge of death still clinging to it.
She opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t.
“I’ve waited so long for you to come back,” he continued, stepping closer. His hand reached for her, but it wasn’t the touch of a man. It was cold, like the grave itself, and yet, she couldn't bring herself to pull away.
“You didn’t think I’d let you go so easily, did you?” he murmured, lifting her chin so that their eyes met.
The air around them grew thick, the cemetery around them growing distant.
Lucian’s fingers brushed her cheek, and Evangeline knew, without a single word spoken, that this was the cost of love—of loving him. Forever. In darkness.